One of the largest upheavals in financial markets during the past year has been the plunge in the price of oil. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil (one of the main gauges of “the oil price”) has fallen from over $100 per barrel in July 2014 to around $45 per barrel. This decline has decimated the energy sector, which has lost almost 30% of its value over the past year while the overall US stock market has gained more than 10%. Is the energy sector’s underperformance a short-term aberration or part of a longer-term trend?